Who Else Over 40…(Er 50) Wants To Re-Size, Permanently?

Stop Running, Dieting And Going To The Gym Because…

…all of these forms of correction are extremes and for many of us, they’re part of the cause of the fat gain in the first place. Running, any cardio that causes you to breathe so hard you can’t hold a conversation, dramatically increases your cortisol levels. Cortisol is the stress hormone that acts like a switch directly connected to your adrenals that instantly down regulates fat burning and increases glycogen or carbohydrate burning. This is because cortisol is your ‘fight or flight’ hormone and fat takes longer for the body to convert it to energy. There are some exceptions depending on your diet but, in general, fat is a poor fuel for immediate bursts, even really long, extended high stress energy needs.

To lose fat and keep the body burning a greater amount of fat, walking is by far the best activity, followed by heavy resistance training done for a short period of time, followed by HIIT- high intensity interval training. Walking causes the least amount of cortisol release. The other activities will spike your cortisol but for a very short duration.

Moving on to dieting. A Caloric deficit is critical to losing weight, period. DO NOT be fooled by all the noise out there. Keto freaks will tell you otherwise but it’s just not true. If you eat more fuel than you burn, you will gain weight. If you eat less fuel than you burn you will lose weight. Now, types of foods matter and I would agree that you should consume less carbs if you’re not working out for long periods of time, especially if you follow my advice above but, carbs are very important for muscle support. Yes, the type of carbs is critical so you can put the donut down.

To lose fat, you MUST count calories so you know how much fuel you’re putting in your body. No, it’s not an exact science. You’ll always be a bit off but, you’ll get better and more precise with time as you get to know your body. Think of your body just like your car…if it didn’t have a gas gauge. Would you just run the car out of gas all the time or start paying more attention to the signs that it’s getting low? And when you get gas, do you just keep filling it until the gas is running all over the ground or do you pay close attention to the signs, like the pump clicking off to tell you that’s enough? For your body, start with a very slight caloric deficit, maybe a couple hundred calories under for each day. The key is to prevent hunger. You do this by gradual calorie reduction and by watching that you get enough protein and fat, with carbs being the least of your total calories so that your Ghrelin hormone is controlled. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone. It drives you to eat. We want more Leptin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you that you’re full. How do you get more Leptin? Leptin is contained in your fat cells so….the more fat your body breaks down to burn the more Leptin is released to signal that you’re full.

Finally, the gym. Because the current health risk from too many sweaty people in the same place sharing too little space, the gym is for fitness. Fitness and fat loss are two separate things. Sure, exercise can help you burn more calories which may help burn more fat but, only if you do the right things…and unfortunately, most people in the gym overtrain for fat loss. When you overtrain, you increase cortisol which reduces fat burning and because you still train, your body actually starts going after your fast twitch muscle fibers if it runs out of carbs or sugars to burn. This leads to skinny fat, not what you set out to do.

If you want to re-size, permanently, you have to ‘tease’ the body into giving you what you want. You have to make slight adjustments, listen to your body carefully, track data, then make more small adjustments. Our bodies and our brains work best when using negative feedback loops. It’s how your entire biology operates.

Anyway, I probably rambled enough. I hope these tips help. I hope you’ll give feedback, maybe even share this information with others. Of course, you can always visit my website for more; www.poundowncrew.com